NRG Energy announced that the 290-megawatt Agua Caliente solar project has received an offer of conditional commitment for a loan guarantee of up to $967 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. NRG’s acquisition of the project from First Solar was announced last month. The Yuma County, Arizona project, which began in 2010 and is expected to be completed by 2014, is expected to create up to 400 construction jobs.

“The public private partnership between NRG Solar, First Solar and the Department of Energy will be instrumental in adding an unprecedented amount of emission-free solar power to America’s energy portfolio,” said Tom Doyle, President of NRG Solar. “Together, we will create hundreds of jobs and reduce the nation’s fossil fuel dependence and carbon intensity. Since clean solar generation availability tends to align with the periods of highest electricity demand, projects like Agua Caliente add natural peaking capacity to the grid.”

“The DOE Loan Programs Office is important to enabling the deployment of utility-scale renewable energy resources such as Agua Caliente, supporting financing terms commensurate with the long-lived nature of a photovoltaic solar power plant,” said Frank De Rosa, First Solar Senior Vice President of Project Development, North America. “These cost advantages allow renewable energy sources to scale faster towards grid parity.”

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